


Five Things Rose Tyler Never Did Before She Met The Doctor

by Leyenn



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-11-15
Updated: 2009-11-15
Packaged: 2017-10-02 22:52:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 996
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11554
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leyenn/pseuds/Leyenn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Written for Ladyvivien for the Five Things Meme.</p>
    </blockquote>





	Five Things Rose Tyler Never Did Before She Met The Doctor

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ladyvivien](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladyvivien/gifts).



> Written for Ladyvivien for the Five Things Meme.

**1\. _eleven_**

The bottle wobbles a bit more on Shireen's old brown shag pile rug, the one that was a present from her nan and's too awful but too obvious to get rid of, even though it doesn't go with anything else in the room.

An old whisky bottle out of the back of the cupboard, both of them giggling like maniacs - it's a wonder they didn't get caught - feeling very grown up for being the ones to pilfer it when no one else dared. Rose still has that proud little shard of feeling in her stomach, kind of like when she's sick before the dentist but a lot more exciting.

The bottle wobbles to a stop. There's whisky dripping out of the screw-on lid, and it's pointing right at Rose.

That little shard twists a bit more. She's not sure about grinning, but it's not like she wants to discourage the right outcome, either. Problem is, they never taught her about this bit in biology, not even with boys.

Just as well there aren't any of them here, then, she thinks, as Shireen takes a swig of whisky and leans across to kiss her.

  


*

  


**2\. _twelve_**

Birmingham New Street is a lot bigger and colder at eleven sixteen p.m. than it was at three sixteen when she got off the train, and she's already run out of layers to try and fit in between her double-A bra and her dad's old Arsenal sweatshirt. Instead she huddles up tighter in the cold metal seat and tries to move around so that at least she's not being poked in the back.

She's absolutely still not ever going back. No way. Not going to happen. She's got this far, she can damn well make it. They planned it all out, she's only got to wait until morning and then her ticket's all ready for the trip up to Edinburgh, and Shireen promised she'd never ever tell, so by then no one will _ever_ find her. She could have gone straight up north that way from London, but this was cheaper, and even then it took a month and a half of pocket money to save up.

She's not going back. No way. It's only seven hours until morning, anyway.

Maybe if she makes it to midnight, she'll believe that.

  


*

  


**3\. _fourteen_**

"How'd'ya fancy Geography?" Shireen twirls a sparkly purple pen around her fingers. "'S piss-easy. Jaspo said so."

Rose doesn't believe anything Jasper says, even if he is Shireen's only brother and she did once think he was quite good-looking. He's eighteen and thinks he's all adult and all that, but he's got the brains of a spastic sheep. She doesn't say that, of course.

"No, I wanna take History," she says firmly, putting a big black line through 'geography' on her list. "And anyway, what's the point in knowing all the states in America anyway?"

"I'm gonna move there when I'm eighteen," Shireen protests, like that's a good enough reason to lumber them both with Mr Jones for another two years. Rose hates geography, and she hates Mr Jones even more. He's unnerving, and possibly an alien.

"No way," Rose insists. Shireen pouts.

"Okay, but I get to pick next. Food an' Textiles."

Rose looks at 'Electronics' on her list and reluctantly puts a line through it. Well, her mum's always saying her cooking could improve. And they did say they'd take everything together.

  


*

  


**4\. _sixteen_**

"I never want to see you again!" she screams at him. "I _hate_ you!"

He stands there, staring at her, all dumb silence in the face of her anger and tears. He looks like he wants to say her name, but he's afraid of what she might do with the sound of his voice as an excuse.

"You're just like a big _brother_," she spits at him, the worst thing she knows he doesn't want to hear from her. She's so good at hurting him, she knows all the tricks - she's been learning them since she was a kid, after all, isn't that what this is all about? "You don't want me to be happy, you just want to keep me for yourself!

"You don't care about me, well - well I don't care about _you_, then, either," and the words taste hollow as she says them, trying to sound adult and mature even though she probably looks worse than Miss Derwent when it's obviously been a hard night out and it's a first period class. She pretends this conversation makes sense even though he's not saying anything, just standing there and hurting and -

"I hate you," she says again, not believing it one bit, and bites her lip as she folds into his arms and starts crying all over again, and it's only then that he murmurs 'I'm sorry, babe' in her ear.

  


*

  


**5\. _nineteen_**

"I'm sorry, the vacancy's been filled. Miss Tyler, isn't it?"

She doesn't blush at the tone in the woman's voice, because that would be acknowledging what it means, which is blatantly 'no vacancies for you, my girl, don't bother waiting'. Just because she doesn't have any A-levels doesn't mean she's stupid, she wants to say, doesn't mean she couldn't make it in the world - but that would just sort of prove the point, that she's just not right for this swanky newspaper office with all its glass windows and indoor planting. Wouldn't be proper, them employing someone with actual ambition and some shitty schooling. Like none of them ever fell in with the wrong guy and needed a bit of a hand up again once in a while.

"Didn't want the stupid job anyway," she mutters to herself on the tube, screws up the last copy of her CV into a ball and leaves it stuffed down the side of the seat.

On the way home there's a notice in Henriks' window and one door's still propped open for the cleaner, so she darts inside.

  


*

  



End file.
